How to use interdisciplinary knowledge and mind maps to teach unit 11, english textbook 11

THANH HOA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HOANG HOA 4 HIGH SCHOOL

EXPERIENCE INITIATIVE

HOW TO USE INTERDISCIPLINARY
KNOWLEDGE AND MIND MAPS TO TEACH UNIT 11,
ENGLISH TEXTBOOK 11

Author: Dinh Thi Thanh Hien
Position: Teacher
Subject: English

1


THANH HOA, 2017

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents
Page
I- INTRODUCTION
1
1.Rationale
1
2. Aims of the study
1
3. Objects of the study
1
4. Methods of the study

1
II- CONTENTS OF THE STUDY
2
1. Theoretical background
2-3
2. Practical background
4
3. Using interdisciplinary knowledge and mind maps to 4-18
teach Unit 11 , English textbook 11
4. Results of applying method
19
III- CONCLUSION AND RESOLUTION
20
Reference books

2


I- INTRODUCTION:
1. Rationale :
For many years, teaching and learning have been considered as teaching and
learning a set of isolated English and isolated items such as phonetics,vocabulary,
grammar,...so English lessons are often seen stressful and boring. In fact,
English was viewed a subject integrated many different subjects and teaching ,
learning English were considered as a mastery of these items together. Many
teachers have been trying hard to apply suitable methods of teaching with a view
to helping students understand the lessons better and feel more motivated in
English lesson.Nevertheless, it is a matter of fact that integrated method of
teaching often take teachers a lot of time and work to prepare well related
knowledge. As most teachers are only trained proffetionally so they have

difficulties getting knowledge of another subjects. Therefore, teachers should
find out the best method to create new techniques, rediscover the old ones to suit
objectives of current innovations and meet the study demand in the century 21.
Basing on these facts, I forcefully used interdisciplinary knowledge and
mind maps for many units in English textbook with the aim of enable my
students to find documents from different sources and to feel more interested,
take part more actively in English lessons .
2. Aims of the study:
My theme focuses on making clear about some issues below:
- What is interdisciplinarity ?/ what is mind map?
- Why is using interdisciplinarity and mind maps to teach one of innovatory
methods ?
- How are interdisciplinary knowledge and mind map applied?
3. Objects of the study:
The objects chosen for my study and application are 11 th grade students in
classes 11A3, 11A2 in Hoang Hoa 4 high school, Thanh Hoa province. The
students are in natural- science classes tending focus only on their main subjects

3


such as maths, physics, chemistry and biology. So they learn English in passive
way.
4. Methods of the study:
My study is conducted by qualitative methods to collect information, compare,
and then, analyse data.By using the combination of these methods my theme
will reach effectively the targets of the essay.
II- CONTENTS OF THE STUDY
1. Theoretical background
What is interdisciplinarity?

According to Wikipedia interdisciplinarity involves the combining of two or
more academic disciplines into one activity . It is about creating something new
by thinking across boundaries. It is related to an interdiscipline or an
interdisciplinary fields, which is an organizational unit that crosses traditional
boundaries between academic disciplines or school of thought, as new needs and
professions emerge.
The term interdisciplinary is applied within education and training pedagogies
to describe studies that use methods and insights of several established
disciplines or traditional fields of study. Interdisciplinarity involves students,
and teachers in the goals of connecting and integrating several academic schools
of thought, professions, or technologies- along with their specific perspectivesin the pursuit of a common task. Interdisciplinarity can likewise be applied to
complex subjects that can only be understood by combining the perspectives of
two or more fields.[2]
For example, the subject of land use may appear differently when examined by
different disciplines, for instance, biology, chemistry, economics, geography,
and politics.
To begin with, a discipline can be conveniently defined as any comparatively
self-contained and isolated domain of human experience which possesses its
own community of experts. Interdisciplinarity is best seen as bringing together
distinctive components of two or more disciplines. In academic discourse,
interdisciplinarity typically applies to four realms: knowledge, research,
education, and theory. Interdisciplinary knowledge involves familiarity with
components of two or more disciplines. Interdisciplinary research combines
components of two or more disciplines in the search or creation of new
knowledge, operations, or artistic expressions. Interdisciplinary education
merges components of two or more disciplines in a single program of
instruction. Interdisciplinary theory takes interdisciplinary knowledge, research,
or education as its main objects of study.

4

Interdisciplinary knowledge are important because:[2]
1. "Creativity often requires interdisciplinary knowledge.
2. Immigrants often make important contributions to their new field.
3. Disciplinarians often commit errors which can be best detected by people
familiar with two or more disciplines.
4. Some worthwhile topics of research fall in the interstices among the
traditional disciplines.
5. Many intellectual, social, and practical problems require interdisciplinary
approaches.
6. Interdisciplinary knowledge and research serve to remind us of the unityof-knowledge ideal.
7. Interdisciplinarians enjoy greater flexibility in their research.
8. More so than narrow disciplinarians, interdisciplinarians often treat
themselves to the intellectual equivalent of traveling in new lands.
9. Interdisciplinarians may help breach communication gaps in the modern
academy, thereby helping to mobilize its enormous intellectual resources
in the cause of greater social rationality and justice.
10.By bridging fragmented disciplines, interdisciplinarians might play a role
in the defense of academic freedom.
What is mind map ?
Mind mapping is a visual form of note taking that offers an overview of a topic
and its complex information, allowing students to comprehend, create new ideas
and build connections. Through the use of colors, images and words, mind
mapping encourages students to begin with a central idea and expand outward to
more in-depth sub-topics.:[4]

Mind Map Example

5

Definition of a Mind Map
A mind map is a visual representation of hierarchical information that includes a
central idea surrounded by connected branches of associated topics.
In education mind mapping is a beneficial learning tool to help students
brainstorm any topic and think creatively. Mind maps are particularly helpful in
the writing process and provide students with a natural way of thinking
and building thoughts on a story plot or theme.
Mind maps also provide teachers with insight into their students’ thought
process regarding a specific topic. By asking students to create mind maps
demonstrating their comprehension of a concept, teachers are able to understand
what a student’s prior knowledge was and how well the student understands the
assignment or the material being taught. This is a very effective way of
evaluating students’ understanding.
2. Practical background
Interdisciplinary teaching and learning give more opportunities for students to
connect new learning with what they know and are interested in . It provides
more ways for students to learn and demonstrate their skills and understandings .
Students from 11A2, 11A3 ( students are interested in chemistry, physics,
biology ) are excited about using knowledge of their favourite subjects in
English lessons. Moreover, interdisciplinary learning helps students build
confidence to overcome challenges learning new and difficult English words
because it encourages students to become personally invested in their work
(since they are given the privilege and responsibility of making choices about
what and how they learn and demonstrate their learning). More importantly,
interdisciplinary work can lead to more personal, relevant, and memorable
learning experiences for students and teachers – teachers get excited about
students’ fresh ideas( solutions to protect environment) and new ways of
demonstrating their understanding. And students find learning English intersting

and useful.
Simultaneously, I have discovered that visually mind mapping ideas helps
communicate with students by creating an engaging experience that is also more
memorable. Students find the process of visually recording ideas, whether for
note taking or creating presentations, to be more fun than traditional note taking.
By mapping the ideas one has an opportunity to record new ideas where they fit
in terms context and content[3]. This process enables students to organize their
notes by categories and relationships while mapping.
3. Using interdisciplinary knowledge and mind maps to teach unit 11English textbook 11, Educational Publishing House .

6


UNIT 11:

SOURCES OF ENERGY

Discuss advantages and disadvantages of sources of energy. Work in group
1.- Collect relevant information, evidences and pictures to sources of energy.
- Discuss advantages and disadvantages of sources of energy
- Use mind maps to perform your work
2. Prepare and give presentation to your class.
Stage1: Collecting information, evidences related to the content of the lesson.
To collect relevant information , students will need access to some different
resources. Typical resources for student include textbooks, newspapers and
magazines. Perhaps the most helpful resources can be found on the Internet .
This makes students more excited about the topic and their study becomes more
active. Also, in this stage, I gave out many driving questions to my students.
- What are the major forms of fossil fuels?
- How were fossil fuels formed?

- How are these fuels collected?
- What are the advantages and disadvantages of using fossil fuels?
- What are the environmental benefits of renewable energy?
- Why aren't some renewable resources widely accepted today?
Stage 2: Deploying the work
- Dividing groups
In the first place, I divided my class in to groups of 6 , and assigned tasks for
each group .
Group 1,3 : Non- renewable energy
Group 2,4 : Renewable energy
Group 5,6 : Sources of energy
Each groups’ members should discuss on how to design, create, and present
products.Students could decide what products they will creat, what resources
they will use, and how they will structure their time. For unit 11 - sources of
energy , they will discover information from chemistry, geography and physics

7


Students worked in group of six or eight

Stage 3:Conducting the work
Groups were asked to perform their works by using mind maps as developing
mind maps increases thinking, memory and learning skills. It is now widely
accepted that people have a better memory for images than for words. The
combination of words and images that are not simply decorative have been
found to facilitate learning, understanding, remembering and performing.
Images can help students select, structure, synthesize and integrate information
in a meaningful way.

8


Students compiled information and used mind map to convey their ideas
During this stage, I served as coach, moving from group to group to guide the
students' work. As I did so, I asked myself the following coaching questions :
-Are the students attentive and working together cooperatively?
- Are the resources that students use geared to their comprehensive level of
understanding?
- Do any groups have trouble in expressing their ideas? / using vocabulary ?

9


And it it is essential that the teacher ask the students to attempt this activity
when new problems are addressed.
Stage 4: Presenting the work.

Each group in my class showcased its picture to the class, explaining how the
product was achieved as well as presenting the content. In this stage, students of

10


each group viewed and could give questions and answers to other group. The
teacher also observed how engaged they were in presenting their works
Start with a topic in which students are already highly knowledgeable about
how other disciplines address the issue and have a clear sense of how to
synthesize and integrate. This will build my confidence and allow me to more
effectively gauge how students respond.

Group 6:

NON- RENEWABLE ENERGY

Most of our energy comes from non-renewable energy sources. Coal,
petroleum, natural gas, and uranium are examples of nonrenewable energy
sources. Non-renewable energy sources are used to make electricity, to heat our
homes, to move our cars, and to manufacture products.

Non- renewable energy and its harmful effects
Fossil fuels are available from environment. However, they will be exhausted in
a relatively short time . Moreover, fossil fuels are called nonrenewable because
it takes millions years for them to appear after being used up. Fossil fuels are

11


important but they are not good you know. Unfortunately, when we use fossil
fuels we also harm environment. They cause nagative effects on the environment
such as air pollution, acid rain, global warming, climate change .
- A students from group 6 gave some questions to own his group:
Who can explain what global warming is ?

Global warming
- An another member of group 6 anwsered:
Burning fossil fuels releases the carbon stored in these fuels into the atmosphere
as carbon dioxide. This is a type of Green gas. Too many greenhouse gases in
the atmosphere act like a blanket around the Earth, making it feel warm like the
air inside a greenhouse[5]. It's called the greenhouse effect. When the earth
starts to heat up, the global warming occurs.

To explain global warming students used knowledge of chemistry and
physics.This educates students to limit using fossil fuels in daily lives.
- Why does acid rain happen?

12


ACID RAIN

pollution produced by fossil fuels power stations, factories and cars contains
sulphur and nitrogen gases . When they are released into the air these gases mix
with the rain inside the clouds to make acid rain.
-What is this picture?
- It is photochemical smog happened in China. It is a type of air pollution.

- I don't understand what photochemical is ? Can you explain to me ?

13


- Of course,
PHOTOCHEMICAL SMOG
( Mù quang hóa )

VOC + solar + NO2 + O2
( VOC : chất hữu cơ dễ bay hơi)

O3 +NO + CO2 + H2.

In very busy cities where there are a lot of cars and factories making smoke,

there is often a brownish haze in the air called smog. Photochemical smog is a
mixture of smoke and solar . Smog can damage our lungs if we breathe it in.
To explain global warming students used knowledge of chemistry and physics.
This educates students to limit using fossil fuels in daily lives.
Group 2:

RENEWABLE ENERGY

Renewable energy sources include biomass, geothermal energy, hydropower,
solar energy, nuclear power and wind energy. They are called renewable energy
sources because they are naturally replenished regularly.Renewable energy
sources are used for electricity generation, for heat generation, and for
transportation fuels.

14


In my opinion, the most potential energy is solar energy. It is not only plentiful
and unlimited but also safe and clean. Also, it is easy to use because it uses
simple technology. So it is economical for developing countries.However, it has
some disadvantages . In winter time it might not be plentiful in some areas .
Beside solar energy, wind power plays an important role in our lives. This
energy is used to create electricity. It is a clean and safe source of energy.

15


Moreover, the wind is abundant and unlimited . Although wind power provides
energy without pollution, if the wind does not blow, there is no wind energy.
Biomass energy is another alternative source which causes less pollution.

Biomass can also be used to produce fuels for cars and other vehicles. Also, it is
plentiful , safe and environment friendly. Unfortunately, it requires very heat
tanks to change the plant material into a type of alcohol.
* Some members from other groups questioned:
-How is ethanol made from biomass sources?
Plant material is put into large heated tanks called digesters. Inside the tanks ,
chemical are addded with change the plant material into a type of alcohol called
ethanol[5]. The ethanol can then be used as a fuel in vehicles , producing less
pollution than ordinary petrol.

16


17


Speaker gave a question to other groups :
Do you know which countries have used cars run on fuels from biomass
energy?
- St 1: I know in Brazil many cars run on ethanol made from sugar canes plants.
- St 2: In the USA ethanol produced from corn is added to petrol to reduce
pollution.
- St 3: I think in the future it may even be possible to have cars which run on
fuel made from oranges.
- St4: Sure, at present in the world there are many successful inventions using
alternative sources of energy such as :

"Energy Observer" ship uses only solar , wind and hydro to run .
(This example can encourages students to design machines run on alternative

energy and raise students' awareness of a green environment) .
Nuclear power is enormous and unlimited . It can provide electricty for the
world's need for hundreds yearso but it is very dangerous. Nuclear reator
explosion happens sometimes and kills many people , pollutes the air and causes
cancer for many generations who live in the affected areas. So it requires
advanced technology.Another renewable source is water power. It is not only

18


plentiful, infinite but also safe to use. However, it is expensive to build a dam for
hydroelectricity and is limited in some ares of the world.
To sum up, renewable sources of energy have some advantages and
disadvantages but people should be encouraged to use them more and more in
the future
Group 4:

SOURCES OF ENERGY

Sources energy are divided into two groups : non-renewable and renewable
resources . Non-renewable energy is called fossil fuels. They play an important
role in our lives as they provide us with major sources. We already know that
fossil fuels such as coal, oil, natural gases can be used to heat the home, to
generate electricity. Oil is also used to make different types of plastic, to make
petrol and diesel for cars, fuel for aeroplane. But fossil fuels are limited and
cause many harmfull effects on the environment such as air pollution, climate
change, acid rain,…. Therefore, we should find out alternative sources of energy.

Sources of energy

19


Alternative sources of energy are called renewable resources because they can
be replaced very quickly. They include solar energy, nuclear energy, wind power
, water power and biomass energy. Thesse sources are not only plentiful, infinite
but also clean and safe to the environment. However , each source has its
diadvantages. Nuclear power will be very dangerous if nuclear reactor explosion
occurs. To use water power we need a lot of money to build a dam . There is no
wind energy if the wind does not blow.
To sum up, renewable energy is clean sources of energy that have a much lower
environmental impact than non-renewable energy.
- What should we do to save energy?
-Air pollution from energy production leads to acid rain, excess greenhouse
gases, and health risks. One important step you can take to minimize air
pollution is to conserve energy. We can do this by:
+ Turning off lights, computers, televisions, video games and other electrical
equipment when you're not using them.
+ Buying equipment that uses less electricity such energy efficient light bulbs ,
inverter air conditioners, ….
+ Limiting the use of air conditioner.
+Taking public transportation, such as buses and trains. When possible,
consider walking or biking instead of driving.
Stage5 : Reflecting the process and evaluating
In the simulation, the students discussed what they enjoyed about working in
their groups. Students shared their reflections to note what they had in common
and what was special to each group or to each individual personally.
The teacher evaluated students' work, gave them comments as well as
accompliment.
Group 6 :

"Members of the group prepared well, carefully. I really appreciate your
discovering information and your interdisciplinary knowledge. Moreover, there
are close connections among members in the group. However, your speed
should be faster."
Group 2 :

20


Your presentation is quite fluently. There is a good interaction of members in the
group with other groups "
4. Results of using interdisciplinary knowledge and mind map to teach Unit
11, English Textbook.
To examine the effectiveness of this method , I compared my work with classes
11A7,11A6 ( not used this method ) to teach Unit 11. Most of the students in
these classes completed all the tasks in the textbook traditionally . However,
they were not eager to get the content of the unit and they easily forgot the
vocabularies.
It is the fact that when using interdisciplinary knowledge and mind maps to
teach , my students in 11A2, 11A3 seemed to be very interested in unit and took
part effectively in the unit .Additionally, all the students had the chance to
understand more sources of energy. Since then they raised their awareness of the
use of sources of energy and had effective actions to protect the environment
from negative effects of using energy .

21


III-CONCLUSION
Mind maps and integrated method can be considered as efficient learning ways

due to clear structure, creativity and motivation.Students learn most effectively
when they form a connection between newly and previously acquire
knowledge , between this subject and another subjects . Knowledge learnt in
isolation is rapidly forgotten . Therfore, the impotance of integration is " to make
entire" . Integration is defined as organization of teaching matter to interrelate or
unify subjects frequently taught in separate academic courses or departments.
I myself find that changing method of teaching and learning is a change in
students‘ habits of learning from passive to autonomous, more communicative
teaching approaches.There should be greater student-teacher interactions to
change students‘ mindsets about traditional teacher roles means that the role of
the teacher changes from the provider into a consultant. Teachers also should
emphasize maintaining high standards of practice, focus on improving the
quality of practices, rather than acquiring knowledge. According to this active
and engaged learning, students are insprired to obtain a deeper knowledge of the
subjects they’re learning.
This is my little experience in finding methods to help students find learning is
acquiring actively by themselves. I hope that you will use interactive strategies
to motivate and engage your students, and to create an environment that makes
learning fun.I hope to receive your reading and comments as well as
contribution to make this theme more perfect so that it can be applied widely.
Thanks for your reading!
THE CONFIRMATION OF
THE HEAD MASTER

Thanh Hoa, May 30th 2017.
I hearby assure this is my experience
initative, without copying the contents of
other people.

Author:

Đinh Thị Thanh Hiền

22


REFERENCES
1. English textbook 11
2. />3. Mindmapping and Learning- John Hopkins school ( by Nancy Margulies)
4.http:// www.inspiration.com/visual-learning/mind-mapping
5. Energy saving trust by Bryson Charitable Group

23